Eldad: Stop Arab Provocations in Jerusalem

MK Aryeh Eldad warns police to stop Arab provocations in Jerusalem before local Jews are forced to take action.

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 2/25/2010, 4:47 PM / Last Update: 2/25/2010, 4:54 PM

Flash 90

MK Aryeh Eldad called on Minister of Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovich Thursday to put an end to Arab and leftist riots in Jerusalem. If the police do not act to restrain rioters, local Jews will be forced to take action, he warned.

The riots in question take place regularly near the Tomb of Simon the Just (Kever Shimon HaTzaddik), located in a mixed Jewish and Arab neighborhood adjacent to Highway 1.

"Over the past few days, the leftist and Arab provocations near the tomb have become truly intolerable,” Eldad told Aharonovich. “The harassment faced by the neighborhood's Jewish residents has reached the point where lives could be at stake.”

If the Jerusalem Police do not intervene, “we will be forced to hold daily counter-protests, along with residents of the surrounding [Jewish] neighborhoods,” Eldad warned. “These protests will create the need for a large police presence in order to prevent clashes between the Jewish demonstrators and the Arabs and their supporters.”

Only a constant police presence in the neighborhood can prevent the violence from escalating, Eldad concluded. He urged Aharonovich to act “immediately” in the matter.